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Apple sued by Caltech over Wi-Fi patents

By Dan Pye ● Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The California Institute of Technology has sued Broadcom and Apple over use of the school’s encoding and decoding patents in Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chips, Patently Apple reports. Apple has used Broadcom’s technology since 2012 in most of its devices, including the iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air, Apple Watch and others.

Caltech claims Broadcom’s chips infringe on four of the school’s patents related to improvements in Wi-Fi standards. Apple was drawn into the case because it’s one of Broadcom’s largest customers, with the lawsuit alleging that sales from products incorporating the patents in question “generated hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.” Apple is a frequent target for patent lawsuits, and they’ve been sued by universities before — the company lost a $234 million fight with the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year over patents used its A7 and A8 chips.